by Laura Scott
She had no idea what he was looking for, but then she heard him suck in a harsh breath.
“What’s wrong?” she whispered.
“Look,” Declan said in a husky tone. Beneath the picnic table to their left was a small cardboard box. For a moment she didn’t understand the significance, thinking that some previous picnicker had left it behind.
“I have to call this in,” Declan said in a grim tone. “I think this could be another bomb.”
* * *
Declan knew that the small cardboard box could be nothing, but ever since they’d arrived in the park his nerves had been on edge. No way was he taking a chance on the fact that this could be yet another explosive.
Using his radio, he called his boss and reported the potential threat. Griff agreed to send his SWAT team and the robot, as this was an isolated device, and the rest of his gear. Feeling better that he had backup on the way, Declan fished out his keys and glanced at Tess.
“Here, I need you to go back to the car and lock yourself in,” he said, dropping the keys into the palm of her hand.
“I’d rather stay here with you,” she protested.
No way, he didn’t want her anywhere near the bomb. He was already worried that it could be ready to blow. “I’ll walk you back,” he said. “I want you to shut off your cell phone, because we have no way of knowing if this device is on a timer or if it could be detonated remotely. For all we know, someone is out there right now ready to set it off.”
“Stay with me,” she begged. “At least until your team arrives.”
Her concern warmed his heart, even though he knew Tess would be worried about anyone who was in harm’s way. “I’ll stay clear, but I need to make sure no one else gets too close, either.”
“There isn’t anyone else here,” she protested.
“Tess, you know as well as I do that there are likely a few homeless people roaming around this park. This is my job,” he reminded her gently. “You can help me out by locking yourself inside the vehicle. In fact, I’d like you to drive back to the hotel, just in case.”
He didn’t want to scare her, but for all he knew there was either C-4 or dynamite in that box.
Or nothing at all.
“How will you get back?” she asked.
“Caleb or Isaac will drop me off. Please go. I need to know you’re safe.”
“All right,” she reluctantly agreed. “But promise me you’ll be careful.”
“Always,” he assured her. As she climbed behind the wheel, he realized how hard it must be for the guys’ families, sitting at home, waiting for news. He wasn’t sure how Noelle, Caleb’s wife, managed the stress.
Would Tess be able to do the same?
He shook his head at his foolishness as members of his team arrived. Isaac pulled up first and Declan headed over to grab the bomb gear.
“If this is another explosive, this would be a new record,” Isaac muttered. “Three in one day? What in the world is going on? Why is this perp escalating?”
“Good question,” Declan said as he donned the heavy protective gear. “I can only hope this is a false alarm.”
“No such luck,” Isaac mumbled. “The feds will go crazy over this.”
Declan silently agreed. They sent the robot in first, but it soon became clear that it couldn’t navigate beneath the picnic table. Resigned to doing the task himself, he put on a headlamp and led the way back to where the cardboard box was sitting beneath the picnic table.
Declan knelt a few feet away and used a long device to gingerly lift the cardboard flaps one at a time. When the box was open, he glanced at Isaac. “I’m going to look inside,” he said in a muffled tone.
“Roger, Deck,” Isaac responded.
Declan slowly eased forward, hoping that there wasn’t some perp hiding out, waiting for him to get close enough before he triggered the device. He found himself repeating the prayer Tess had said when he’d worked on the mechanism under her desk.
Dear Lord, if it be Your will, give me the wisdom and strength to disarm this bomb. I ask for Your mercy and grace. Amen.
Declan craned his neck forward to see inside the box. His headlamp confirmed his suspicions. There were three sticks of dynamite wrapped together with electrical tape, along with an old-fashioned egg timer wired to the front.
There was only about fifteen minutes left on the timer before it was designated to blow.
He glanced over at Isaac. “Fourteen minutes and counting. I’ll take the lead.”
Isaac looked as if he might protest, but Declan didn’t give him the opportunity. Feeling more confident now that he could see that the device didn’t have a remote detonator, he crouched beside it and pulled out his wire cutters.
But as he examined the wires, his usual coolness deserted him. And for the first time in a long while, he realized just how much he wanted to live. Not that he ever had a death wish or anything, but still, he had more to live for now. Not just to bring this guy to justice for the lives that had been lost.
But because of Tess. Because as crazy as it sounded, he wanted a chance to get to know her better. To relate to her on a personal level once all this absurdity had been settled.
“Deck?” Isaac asked through the radio. “Something wrong?”
Declan shook his head, realizing he’d been standing there staring at the bomb for at least two minutes. “No, I’m fine. Twelve minutes and counting.”
He cleared his mind and focused on the task at hand. The bomb was rigged in a standard, straightforward format, but he couldn’t help thinking that the guy who’d made the previous bombs wouldn’t have done something so simple. He gently tugged on the wire that logically would lead to the timer, and then moved on to the next one.
There were slight gaps between the sticks of dynamite, and he caught the barest glimpse of a black wire tucked into the back of the timer. He clipped that wire first and was relieved when the timer stopped.
“Bring me the steel box,” Declan said to Isaac. “The timer has been shut down, but I’m not sure which wire leads to the trigger.”
“Roger, Deck.”
Within minutes Declan had lifted the explosive device and placed it gingerly inside the steel box. Then he and Isaac jointly carried it over to the armored truck. Declan didn’t relax until they’d closed the explosive device inside.
“Good job, Deck,” Isaac said, slapping him on the shoulder. “For a minute there, I thought you lost your nerve.”
“Never that,” Declan assured him. “Just needed to think it through, that’s all.”
He was embarrassed to admit that he’d taken the time to pray and to contemplate just how much he had to live for. Which reminded him he needed to call Tess. He took out his phone, turned it on, but was stopped by his boss.
“We need to talk,” Griff said curtly. “Now.”
Declan grimaced. Now that the threat had been neutralized, he knew his boss had several questions: first and foremost, how Declan had come to the park to find the device in the first place. As much as he wanted to talk to Tess, she’d have to wait.
Thankfully, she was likely safe inside the hotel right now. A few more minutes wouldn’t matter much.
He followed his boss over to where the rest of the team waited and drew a deep breath as he prepared to give them the rundown on the latest turn of events.
Events that now put Tess’s brother smack-dab center in the pool of possible suspects.
* * *
After leaving picnic area three, Tess drove slowly through Greenland Park looking for the exit. She caught sight of a blue GMC truck with the letters UTS on the license plate and slammed on the brakes in surprise.
Bobby’s truck! He had come after all!
She pulled up behind the GMC but couldn’t see anyone inside. Where was
her brother? She slid out from behind the wheel and quietly closed the car door behind her.
“Bobby?” she called softly. “It’s me, Tess.”
She strained to listen but couldn’t hear anything other than the rustling leaves and the occasional chirping of a cricket.
“Bobby?” She walked up to the truck, pressing her face against the window to peer inside. Had he fallen asleep?
The interior of the truck was a mess, littered with fast food wrappers and empty soda cans. No beer cans, as far as she could tell, which was reassuring.
But there was no sign of her brother.
She walked around to the front of the truck, looking to see if he was nearby, when she heard something rustle behind her.
“Bobby?” she said once again as she turned around.
She caught a glimpse of a dark figure looming over her seconds before something hard hit her on the head, sending pain reverberating through her skull. Before she could gather her thoughts, darkness claimed her.
NINE
Tess opened her eyes and blinked, trying to see through the darkness. What happened? Where was she?
Her head throbbed and she quickly found the source of her pain in a sizable lump along her temple. There were twinkling stars overhead and it took a minute for her to figure out that the damp feeling was because she was lying flat on her back on the grass alongside the park road.
She pushed herself upright, swaying a bit as the world tilted chaotically on its side. Bracing her hands on the ground, she looked around, sensing something was missing.
For a moment she couldn’t think rationally but then realized Bobby’s truck was gone. She frowned and stared through the darkness. The truck had been there, right? She hadn’t imagined it, had she? Declan’s SUV was parked alongside the road and she remembered parking behind Bobby’s truck.
She didn’t want to believe that her brother had assaulted her and then had taken off. Despite the tension between them, he’d never hurt her physically. It didn’t make sense that he would start now. Staggering to her feet, she belatedly noticed her purse was on the ground a few feet away, lying open. When she crossed over to pick it up, her heart sank as she realized her wallet was gone, along with all the cash she possessed.
Tears burned her eyes as a wave of hopelessness washed over her. Why would Bobby do this? She’d brought the money he’d requested and would have given him what he needed. Why would he have hit her on the head and robbed her?
She fished around in her purse for the car keys, but couldn’t find them. Had Bobby taken those, too? She tried to think back to her actions and remembered that she’d held the keys in her hand as she searched for her brother.
Crawling on her hands and knees, she brushed her hands over the damp grass, trying to feel for the keys, which had to be somewhere nearby. But after a few minutes of searching fruitlessly in the dark, she gave up. She struggled back up to her feet and went over to the police vehicle. Thankfully she hadn’t locked the doors, so she slid inside and switched on the headlights. But even after she turned on the lights, she couldn’t see much in the grass.
Discouraged, she shut the headlights off and climbed back out of the car to walk back the direction she’d come. Her head throbbed more with every step until she felt so sick to her stomach she stopped and sank down onto the grass, curling up in a ball and breathing deeply to fight back the urge to throw up.
She had no idea how long she sat there. It could have been a few minutes or close to an hour, but soon a car approached, the bright headlights cutting through the darkness.
The light made her blinding pain worse, so she ducked her head, shielding her eyes from the glare. It occurred to her that she should run away and hide, but she couldn’t find the will to move.
“Tess? What happened?”
Declan’s reassuring voice broke through the fog in her head. She glanced up at him as he hovered over her. “I’m...sorry. Lost...the...keys—”
She couldn’t finish her thought, but it didn’t matter because Declan lifted her in his arms and carried her. She put her head on his shoulder and closed her eyes, giving in to the overwhelming fatigue now that she knew she was safe.
* * *
Declan held Tess close, his heart pounding with fear and worry as he headed over to the car. He didn’t understand why she hadn’t gone back to the hotel, or why she’d been lying along the side of the road, yards away from the sheriff’s deputy vehicle he’d loaned her.
“What happened?” Isaac asked.
“Not sure but I need you to call 911.” Declan gently set Tess on the passenger seat, but she slumped forward as if unconscious. “Hurry,” he urged Isaac.
He held Tess upright listening as Isaac requested an ambulance for a suspected assault. Declan performed a cursory exam and found a lump along the side of her head.
Two head injuries in less than twenty-four hours couldn’t be good.
“Is she okay?” Isaac asked, coming over to where Declan was kneeling beside the car. “Is there something I can do?”
Declan tore his gaze from Tess’s pale face. “She mentioned something about lost keys,” he said. “She must have misplaced the keys to my vehicle.”
“I’ll take a look around,” Isaac said, pulling out his mega flashlight.
Declan nodded, his attention focused back on Tess. She was breathing okay and he could feel the rapid beat of her pulse, yet she didn’t respond when he called her name.
He hated feeling helpless, unable to do anything for Tess other than to wait for the ambulance to arrive.
But then he remembered how he’d prayed when defusing the bomb, secretly amazed at the sense of peace. Why not try that again?
Dear Lord, thank You for watching over Tess and please heal her wounds. Amen.
Again he experienced a sense of peace, of rightness that he never felt before. And even though Tess wasn’t responding to him, he spoke to her anyway.
“Hang in there, Tess. Help is on the way. I’m right here and I won’t leave you. But this time you are for sure going to the hospital to be checked out, so don’t even try to argue.”
He continued his one-sided conversation until the wail of sirens reached his ears. Within a few minutes the ambulance pulled up just as Isaac jogged back over.
“I found your keys,” he announced, holding them up triumphantly.
“Thanks,” Declan murmured. He stayed right where he was until the two EMTs pulled their equipment from the back of the ambulance and crossed over to him. “What happened?”
“I’m not sure, but she had a lump along the side of her head,” Declan explained.
“We’ll take a look. If you don’t mind, we’ll need some room to maneuver in order to get her on the gurney.”
“Sure.” Declan stepped back, watching closely as the two men worked together to examine Tess once they had her safely strapped onto their gurney.
“Declan?”
He jumped forward when he heard Tess’s voice. “I’m here, Tess.”
Her hand grasped his tightly. “Bobby’s truck...was here. All my money’s gone.”
The implication of what she was telling him sank into his brain. “He attacked you in order to steal the money?”
Her eyes glittered with tears. “I don’t know for sure...that it was Bobby,” she whispered. “Could have been...someone else.”
He ground his teeth, willing himself not to lose his temper. “Try not to worry about it now, Tess,” he said in an attempt to reassure her. “We’ll keep searching for your brother. Right now I want you to concentrate on taking care of yourself, okay?”
“Okay,” she agreed, although he could still see the worry in her pretty brown gaze.
“We’re taking her to Trinity Medical Center,” the EMT informed him.
�
�I’ll meet you there.” As much as he wanted to ride in the ambulance with Tess, he needed to drive so that he would have his car on the off chance they ended up discharging her.
He stood beside Isaac, watching as they loaded Tess into the back of the ambulance.
“Do you want me to come to the hospital?” Isaac offered.
He was touched by the offer but shook his head. “No, but thanks.”
Isaac clapped him on the back. “I’ll put out an APB for that GMC truck,” he offered. “And don’t forget Griff wants your report ASAP.”
He grimaced. “Yeah, I know.”
“Let me know if you need anything else,” Isaac said before he headed over to his car. Declan nodded and then jogged the few yards back to where his vehicle was parked. He slid behind the wheel and made a U-turn in the road so he could follow the ambulance.
Griff’s report could wait until he’d made sure that Tess was really okay. At least physically. Mentally, emotionally, he knew she’d suffer.
Because her brother was clearly involved in this mess, too. Declan figured Tess was holding on to false hope, that Bobby was really innocent despite all the evidence that was now stacked against the kid. But Declan didn’t believe in coincidences. The fact that Bobby called her and asked her to meet him at the same place where a bomb was planted was too much to ignore. Not to mention the way she was subsequently attacked and robbed.
Declan could only hope that one of his colleagues found Bobby soon, before they stumbled across another bomb.
Because Tess’s brother was already facing significant jail time.
He drove to the hospital parking lot and climbed out from behind the wheel. The antiseptic smell of the hospital assaulted him when Declan walked into the emergency department. His uniform was badly wrinkled, but his badge should still be enough to cut through the red tape.
“I need to see Tess Collins,” he said to the woman behind the front desk.
“Ah, sure, let me see.” She tapped on the computer keys and then nodded. “Oh, yes, Ms. Collins is in room twelve. Go through the doors and it’s the last room on the right.”
“Thanks.” He strode through the double doors and found Tess’s room without difficulty, although there was a doctor and a nurse in there, so he waited outside the door while they tended to her.
